ONE: With or without title, Denice Zamboanga would still want to fight Angela Lee

FILE – Denice Zamboanga. Photo from ONE Championship

MANILA, Philippines—Years removed from their verbal spat, Denice Zamboanga still wants a piece of ONE atomweight champion Angela Lee.

A showdown with Lee remains a “dream fight” for Zamboanga, who was once the top contender for the crown in a stacked class.

Zamboanga earned a title shot against Lee back in February 2020 but couldn’t catch a break after her chance for the crown got derailed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Lee’s pregnancy.

She also got robbed from advancing to the Atomweight Grand Prix semifinal after a hotly contested split decision loss to Ham Seo Hee in a bout that was put under formal review by the Competition Committee, which upheld the South Korean’s win. Even ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong felt Zamboanga should’ve won.

“Of course. I think everyone else would want it too,” Zamboanga said in Filipino on Tuesday when asked about fighting Lee.

“I feel like I would still want to fight her even if she’s not a champion,” she added.

FILE – ONE atomweight champion Angela Lee during a fight against Stamp Fairtex in ONE X. Photo from ONE Championship

The two could still potentially cross paths especially if Zamboanga regains her winning ways.

The 25-year-old Zamboanga has slipped to No. 3 in the atomweight rankings following her back-to-back losses to Ham.

But Zamboanga has no doubt that she’ll find her way back to the top and finally get her much-deserved crack at a world title.

“For me, it won’t be that hard [to make my way up the rankings]. It’s easy for me to come back, I just have to train well,” Zamboanga said.

Zamboanga is doing just that by training two to three times every day as she hopes to have one more fight before the year ends.

“It’s like I’m holding a training camp because I really want to get stronger and add more dimension to my game,” she said.

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